New Delhi: Anil Sharma, 70, waved a miniature national flag well past sunset in central Delhi's Connaught Place, amid heavy security, on Saturday, 16 October 2026.
Wearing a collared white T-shirt with stripes, Sharma held the flag taut in one hand and a water bottle in the other. He occasionally lowered the bottle to wipe sweat or adjust his glasses, but the flag stayed steady until the police eventually cleared the protesting crowd and he had to move too.
A retired businessman, Sharma said he was there “for the country's children”.
Watching videos of the police detaining and brutalising students over the last few days had jolted him out of being only a consumer of news. “I felt horrible watching those visuals," he said.
Many others like Sharma aren't Gen Z or millennials, but much older, and still participating in these protests, which are widely seen as youth-led.
“Our life is reaching its end,” said Sharma. “But we need to be here for our children, for their future. If we don’t support them, what will happen to them?”
The police requested him to leave multiple times, he said, but he responded by smiling and waving the flag. Sharma has supported India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past, voting for the party in multiple elections.
“I supported BJP after the scams under the [previous government] UPA,” Sharma said. Over time, he said, he grew disillusioned with the party. “The tall promises and claims they (the BJP) make, I would never see them translate on the ground.” Like Sharma, 68-year-old Nishat Khan waved a flag for several hours, albeit one much bigger. “There are many white-haired people like me who saw videos of people being beaten and shoved into buses, so they're scared,” said Khan, 68. “They want to be safe. But I will tell them, now is the time to come out.”
Khan, 68, a retired IT services professional who worked for HCL Technologies, had voted for the BJP in 2014, impressed by Narendra Modi's campaign. The videos he saw prompted Khan to leave his home.
“I am seeing videos of young girls being molested, and that has made me very upset,” said Khan. “They are my daughter’s age. No matter what they’re protesting about, no one deserves to be molested and groped.”
Khan did not inform his children or wife before going to the protest, fearing he might worry them sick.
A Moment Of Reckoning
The videos of young men and women being bundled into buses, and their subsequent accounts of being beaten in detention, have moved many people. For many older protesters, this felt like a moment of reckoning—not just with what’s happening to young people today, but also with their own past voting choices.
While the Modi government has seen multiple protests, most notably the farmers’ protests in 2021 and those against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019-20, they’ve largely been led by marginalised groups and communities.
In these rounds of protests, as with the July Cockroach Janata Party-led protests against education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, many of those putting their bodies on the line are young, urban youth, some of whom have parents who are BJP supporters.“Galti kardi support karke (I made a mistake supporting them),” said shop owner Jagmeet Singh, 50, as he sat on his scooter parked outside the Rajiv Chowk metro station, which opens into Connaught Place.
Over the last few days, shopkeepers in the market have said the protests were hurting their business. Others countered that it wasn’t the protests, but police barricades and lines of their vehicles that were blocking roads.
The protests spilt onto the streets of central Delhi after entry to Jantar Mantar, the original protest site—a status since revoked—was blocked.
Singh, who runs a clothing store in Connaught Place, doesn’t care much about the traffic snarls now common around the market. “I saw the police beating a girl, basically punching her,” said Singh. “Why are we surrounded by Uttar Pradesh police vans to put more of our young girls in?” He was referring to the deployment of Uttar Pradesh police to curtail the protests.
Singh said his support for the BJP came from hope instilled in him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Never again am I voting for them,” he said.
‘I Have Not Seen A Day Like This In 82 Years’
Among the elderly, some come out with trepidation, while others feel they have less to lose.
Social worker Ram Jilal, 51, travelled from Rajasthan to Delhi to participate in the Tiranga protests. “The youth are out there, even when they have their whole lives ahead of them,” said Jilal. “This is the least we can do to show solidarity with them.”
Jilal said he doesn’t feel any fear. “If they want to detain me, let them,” he said. “As an Ambedkarite, I don’t feel scared.”Social worker Samiullah Khan, 48, felt the same way. A long-time Congress supporter, he said there was no scenario in which he would not have come here. “These people just want to wave the national flag; that’s no crime,” he said. “I have to be here to support them.” While the number of elderly people at these protests has gradually increased, some showed up at one of the initial protests as well.
Hansraj Bhutani, 82, was present at the protests outside Jantar Mantar on 10 October. With police and paramilitary forces far outnumbering the protestors that day, Bhutani stood out in all white, which blended into his long white beard.
“I am not here to protest per se,” Bhutani said, without saying who he voted for. “I am here to give food and water to whosoever needs it. Today is even more dangerous than the Emergency. I have not seen a day like this in 82 years.”
(Fatima Khan is an independent journalist based in Delhi.)
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